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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Sekhar Extortion Convictions Affirmed

U.S.
Court of Appeals Upholds Convictions for Attempting to Extort General Counsel
to NYS Comptroller

ALBANY, NY—In an opinion issued today,
the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Giridhar C.
Sekhar’s convictions related to his attempted blackmail of the New York State
Comptroller’s former General Counsel, announced United States Attorney Richard
S. Hartunian and Special-Agent-in-Charge Clifford C. Holly of the Albany
Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sekhar is serving fifteen
months in prison as required by the sentence imposed on October 4, 2011 by the
Honorable Thomas J. McAvoy, Senior United States District Judge. On April 18,
2011, a jury convicted Sekhar of one count of attempted extortion and five
counts of interstate transmission of an extortionate threat.1

The convictions arose from Sekhar’s
transmission of extortionate electronic mail messages to the former General
Counsel for the New York State Comptroller between November 17, 2009 and
December 1, 2009. At the time, Sekhar was a managing partner of the venture
capital and private equity company FA Technology Ventures Corporation (“FA
Technology”).

In the messages, Sekhar threatened to
reveal an alleged extramarital affair unless the General Counsel recommended
that the New York State Comptroller, the sole trustee and manager of the New
York State Common Retirement Fund, commit to a proposed $35 million investment
of retirement fund assets in funds managed by FA Technology (the “commitment”).
If FA Technology had received the proposed $35 million investment, then it
would have received more than $7 million in fees.

Sekhar sent the messages after learning
that the commitment would not be approved and that the General Counsel had
recommended that it not be approved. By threatening to disclose the alleged
extramarital affair, Sekhar attempted to obtain, with the General Counsel’s
consent, the General Counsel’s recommendation to approve the commitment.

The case was originated by the Albany
County District Attorney’s Office with assistance from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Albany Office, and the Brookline, Massachusetts Police
Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney
Elizabeth C. Coombe of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern
District of New York.

1He was acquitted of one count of
Interstate Transmission of an Extortionate Threat.